Monthly Archives: February 2014

If you’ve seen the “message of the day” on the server you may notice that players have been instructed to temporarily halt construction on current and new Stadiums and Olympic Parks.

This is due to the vast increase in the number of these builds within the past few weeks. The total number of stadiums on the server has approximately quadruped in just this short time.

To allow server staff to discuss how we should approach this increase, we’ve asked players to stop working on their stadium projects until this is resolved. We expect to announce our results before or during the scheduled general staff meeting due to be held this Saturday, March 1st at 9pm GMT. As with recent staff meetings, there will be a chance to listen in to our discussion.

The stadiums are an issue because like airports, stadiums take up a lot of space, and you may have noticed that free building space is beginning to dwindle and until we install a new world there’s not much we can do. We’re also seeing a large number of Olympic Parks being built. The MRT Olympics is an event organised by members but players need to bid in order to host the games. Building the parks before being a confirmed host has been seen as unfair to other bidders who may have the city capable of hosting, but by that point Olympic stadiums may be so common there may not be the space to build one, or worst case scenario we’d have to prohibit them. But we don’t want to do that, hence why we’re enforcing this temporary construction block until we can work out a better alternative for everyone.

But don’t worry, regardless of the outcome you will not lose your build and will 99% be able to finish it in some way or another. We thank you for your patience and you’ll hear back within the next few days.

We are pleased to announce that, with the return of Frumple, the supporter center has been re-opened! If you wanted to contribute over the past month, but couldn’t, now you can do so! Please take a moment to read our Supporter Policy, then follow the link there to our Buycraft portal. Supporters get a couple neat benefits, plus the warm inner glow of awesomeness knowing that you helped create this wonderful corner of the internet.

You can review our server finances spreadsheet here. Thanks to your generosity, we have offset 25% of our operating costs to date. That is just awesome.

In other news, we have our next GSM on Saturday, March 1. This meeting will be a bit different than usual, being composed of three parts:

A Pre-Meeting, for administrators only, starting at 8:30 pm UTC.

The public meeting, starting at 9:00 pm UTC and likely running until 9:45 or 10:00.

The private meeting for moderators and administrators, starting at the conclusion of the public meeting and likely running until 11:00 or 11:30.

If you would like to nominate other players for the Trusted or Moderator ranks, please do so at http://dft.ba/-MRTNominate by this Friday.

First, our next General Staff Meeting will occur on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 9:00 PM GMT (learn what time that is for you at http://dft.ba/-MRTGSM). We are accepting Trusted nominations at the usual place, http://dft.ba/-MRTNominate, and we are also accepting Moderator nominations there (though we might not actually promote anyone). Under the new Warning Policy, members who have one minor warning against them (see my latest post for examples) may be nominated and promoted up. We will be doing our next Inactive Build Auction in April.

Second, if you haven’t seen the latest Dynmap renders or been on the server, we’ve completely redone the Admod Building! We’ve redesigned it to be more aesthetically appealing (to some), give the staff more open office space, and have our meetings on the ground floor. We’ve also added more offices to reflect our growing player base, and hopefully this will be one of many steps to reduce the lag in the Spawn City area.

Third, along the lines of “redo all the things”, Spawnpartments has been redone as well. Now with a 158% increase in capacity, Members and up can claim and build in any one apartment while they get settled into the rest of the server. Please observe the rules and guidelines posted on the red boards as you enter the building.

Finally, inside Spawn Station itself, we have started the process of reducing the lag. One of the new things that has been added is an infinite item dispenser system made out of command blocks, which gives out infinite stacks of useful items like minecarts, night vision potions, Notch apples, and of course tacos. Push the button and you will receive an infinite stack of the item you selected. How convenient!

Frumple will be back in just two short weeks, but until then, please don’t hesitate to contact any of the admins with any questions or concerns.

Have a good day! As they say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.
– Chief

Hey all! Sorry for the delayed post, I’ve been busy doing physics and building the Spawn City Link (among other things).

We have officially adopted the following policy changes, with regards to warnings:

Within the near future we will install a new plugin – SimpleWarnings (or similar) – to track player warnings. You will be able to check your own warnings in-game.

Most warnings will clear around 2 months (60 days) after being issued. There are a couple of exceptions, which will take longer to clear.

If you have one (1) active warning for a minor violation of the rules, you will not lose your [Mayor] or [Trusted] rank (however you will lose it if you accumulate two (2) active warnings). Minor rule violations include, but are not limited to:

Excessively asking for teleports, WorldEdits, protections, or other favors or tasks from staff.

Asking to become a staff member.

Chat or Mumble spam that’s annoying, but doesn’t violate other rules.

Ask admins to look at your member application (we will get to it when we have time!)

Building in other players’ towns without permission.

Building unrealistic roads or railways.

Major warnings clear after a minimum of 3 months, if you show improvement. Major warnings will result in you losing your [Mayor] or [Trusted] rank, even if you only have one warning against you. Examples of major rule violations include:

Repeat violations of minor rules (such as repeatedly asking to become a staff member), especially after having a warning for them.

Griefing.

Being disrespectful to other players, their creations, or both.

Asking for or revealing personally identifiable information about others, such as real name, school, or personal contact information without permission.

Staff members will be more consistent and clear when issuing warnings. If you have questions about any active warnings, please ask the staff member who issued them, or an [Admin].

Three players were promoted to the [Trusted] rank. Congratulations to lalaboy67, gogojakeo and jakd2000!

We have tentatively scheduled our next GSM (the kind you get to listen in to) for Saturday, March 1, 2014 at our usual time, which is 9:00 PM UTC. You can learn what time that is for you by clicking this conveniently placed Wolfram|Alpha.com link. This time is still subject to change, however this is our “99% safe” time, unless something comes up between now and then.